Weekly Reminders Sept. 24-28

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

September 24th-28th, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
• Monday, September 24th- Power of One- Anti-bullying Assembly
•Tuesday, September 25th - Room 21 Trip to NASA
•Thursday, September 27th - Room 20 Trip to NASA
• Friday, September 28th- Learning plans go home
• Friday, September 28th- Spirit Day: Hawaiian Day
• Saturday, September 29th-  Family Fun Night!
• Monday, October 1st- Investigation 2 I-Check
• Tuesday, October 2nd- Lunch on the Lawn
• Thursday, October 4th- Unit 1 Test in Social Studies
• October 8th-19th-  Fall break/P.E.P
• Monday, October 22nd- School resumes

Help Needed for Family Fun Night!
 
Dear Murdock-Portal Community,
Family Fun Night is coming soon…..Saturday, September 29, 2012 from 4:00 – 7:00 pm.
This is the annual Family Fun Night community building event. Please come and enjoy an evening with your family and friends. There will be games, bounce houses, prizes, face painting, henna tattoos and food vendors. Cash only for tickets and food.

We are in need of 160 volunteers to make Family Fun Night happen.
4th/5th graders, alumni and parent volunteers... Please consider working a short shift and then stay and enjoy the fun activities.  For each volunteer, please complete the volunteer sign up survey.  Signup will close on Sunday, 9/23/12.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2012FFN

Any questions, please contact psco.volunteer@gmail.com and please do consider signing up to volunteer.

NASA/Ames Exploration Encounter Field Trips
 
On Tuesday, September 25 (Roels) and Thursday, September 27 (Scourkes), our two classes will be visiting NASA/Ames for an exciting science experience!  We will be leaving school at 8:30am and returning between 12:30-12:45pm on our scheduled day.  Students will be eating a BAG LUNCH that you will provide upon their return to school.  Please note that the Tuesday trip may return a few minutes after our usual dismissal time; please notify the person picking up your child of this circumstance.  Parent chaperones should be sure to be here by our 8:30am departure, check in at the office, bring your own bag lunch, and be dressed comfortably for the day.

                           Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts 

This week as we continue to read Island of the Blue Dolphins, students are writing informal responses to what they have read.  They’re learning to use the text to support their opinions and strengthen their answers.  We’ll also be establishing our AR reading levels, reading about current events in our TFK magazines and online, and continuing our sentence structure practice.  This week, we also incorporate our social studies text into our centers to give additional time with nonfiction materials (creating some additional study time for our upcoming test!). Also, this week, we’re setting up our blogging schedule for the year.   Here are the class blogsite addresses:

Room 20 (Scourkes):  http://rockhopperroom20.blogspot.com/
Room 21 (Roels):  http://gtfroom22.blogspot.com/

Math:  
 
4th grade: Our work this week focuses on determining necessary information for problem-solving, followed by identifying and evaluating expressions, equations, and inequalities. This work will continue into next week.  A priority during these lessons is showing all work neatly and clearly.  Achieving this goal is a big step in fourth grade mathematics.  On Friday, we will have game rotations to reinforce skills learned during the week.

5th grade:  We’re refining our place value skills and number relationships as we work with decimals. Understanding patterns is crucial to our understanding of algebraic patterns, which will be our next area of focus.

Social Studies:
 
We hope the students enjoyed making their salt dough maps and gained a better understanding of our state’s geographical features in the process.  Looking ahead, students will be taking their first unit test in social studies next Thursday, October 4th.  A study guide, along with a regions chart, will be sent home with your child today.  We encourage all students to study and prepare in advance by addressing all items on the study guide, reviewing notes, rereading relevant chapters, writing out sample essay responses, and asking questions in class.  At this stage, it is important for students to develop positive study habits and learn to do a little bit each day to feel confident about taking the test.

Science:
 
Investigation Two: Scratch Test continues this week.  We test for hardness (Part 2) to help differentiate between similar minerals.  This follows up last week’s observation of these minerals.  A Response Sheet will allow us to see if our students can apply their understanding of the investigation to a related scenario.  In addition, we’ll read two articles that will reinforce our investigation knowledge- “Birthstones” and “Summary: Scratch Test.”  

CA Trivia:

Where did CA’s first navel oranges come from?

Fall is Coming: Sept. 17-21 Reminders

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

September 17-21, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
• September 17th-20th - Parent Teacher Conferences & Book Fair, 12:30 dismissal
• Friday, September 21st- Learning Day (No School)
• Monday, September 24th- Power of One- Anti-bullying Assembly
• Friday, September 28th- Learning plans go home
• Friday, September 28th- Spirit Day: Hawaiian Day
• Saturday, September 29th:  Family Fun Night!
• Tuesday, October 2nd- Lunch on the Lawn

Conferences:
Conferences will continue through Thursday; please plan accordingly for 12:30 dismissal time during conferences.  We’d like to remind all families to arrive promptly for their conference- most teachers will have as many as six conferences in a row on the scheduled dates!  Also, students MUST attend the conference with their parents; no conferences will be conducted without the student in attendance.  We are looking forward to meeting with the rest of you!   

Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts
 
This week we go more in depth in our reading of Island of the Blue Dolphins. Students will be reading Chapters 3-5 as a whole group, and we’ll be practicing our informal responses to literature during this time.  We will also summarize one of the chapters to practice expository paragraph form and answer comprehension questions related to the reading.  In our Language Arts Centers, we will work with prefixes, create our science Solid Earth notebook cover page, map the terrain of The Island of the Blue Dolphins, and do a little background research on the Aleut people, natural resources of the island’s native people, and the geography of the Channel Islands (the real location for our novel.)

Math
 
4th grade: Our work this week focuses on the operation of subtraction.  We’ve been using manipulatives to connect the algorithm to the actual process of finding the difference between two quantities- very enlightening to many of our students!  We have seen the true need to regroup in order to take away quantities of real items.  Our classes are also continuing to develop their mathematical reasoning and communication skills with Problems of the Day connected to our current studies.

5th grade:
In math, students will continue with their problem solving skills with a new POW.  We’ll also finish our One Grain of Rice exponents project and continue our pattern explorations, while looking at decimal place value.  

Social Studies:
 
Last week, the students did such a stellar job making their salt dough maps of California! This week, we will be painting our maps and adding labels of the four main regions, bordering states, major landforms, cities, and bodies of water.  A BIG thank you to our parent volunteers who have been assisting us with this project.  If you are planning on coming in this week to help, please be sure to check in at the front office to pick up your volunteer badge.  Thank you!

Science:

Investigation Two: Scratch Test begins this week.  We observe unidentified minerals (Part 1), develop our vocabulary to put our observations into words accompanying our illustrations, and test for hardness (Part 2) to help differentiate between similar minerals.  A Response Sheet will allow us to see if our students can apply their understanding of the investigation to a related scenario.  It should be a good week (and beyond!)
 

CA Trivia:

What East Coast state is parallel with San Francisco in latitude?

Sept. 10-14 Weekly Reminders

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

September 10th-14th, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
• Tuesday, September 11th- Zun Zun Watershed Assembly
• September 12th-20th - Parent Teacher Conferences & Book Fair, 12:30 dismissal
• Friday, September 21st- Learning Day (No School)
• Friday, September 28th- Spirit Day: Hawaiian Day
• Saturday, September 29th:  Family Fun Night!

Conferences:
Conferences start this Wednesday; please plan accordingly for 12:30 dismissal time during conferences.  We’d like to remind all families to arrive promptly for their conference- most teachers will have as many as six conferences in a row on the scheduled dates!  Also, students MUST attend the conference with their parents; no conferences will be conducted without the student in attendance.  We are looking forward to meeting with each family!   

Book Fair Help Needed!
The Book Fair will be open from September 12th-20th.  If you are interested in helping run the Book Fair, then please sign up with Kajal Mehta Arora kajalm@hotmail.com

Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts
This week we begin our reading of Island of the Blue Dolphins. Students will be refining their reading comprehension skills of prediction, summary, and responding to literature with their own experiences and points of view.  In our Language Arts Centers, we continue to focus on the upcoming presidential election, prefixes of “pre” and “sub”, and using our social studies and science curriculum to reinforce our non-fiction comprehension.

Math
4th grade: Unit Two, Chapter Three began with an introduction to the Associative, Commutative and Zero Properties of Addition last Friday, and the unit continues this week with a review of adding whole numbers by regrouping and estimating sums and differences.  We so enjoyed our games rotation last week that we have decided to try and make it a regular Friday occurrence. The kids really enjoy putting their week’s learning to the test in game format and we teachers really enjoy the opportunity to teach to all three classes!


5th grade:
In math, students will continue their exponent and place value work. We’ll also read the story One Grain of Rice by Demi, and will do an exponents project related to the story. We’ll also continue to look for patterns in a variety of situations and our daily lives.

Social Studies:
We began note-taking last week from our textbook as we ventured into our study of the four regions of California:  the coast, the valley, the mountains, and the desert.  Note-taking requires that students read one paragraph at a time to determine the main idea.   Identifying the main idea, theme, or author’s purpose is a very difficult concept in both fiction and non-fiction text.  Students are learning that, while the first sentence does introduce us to the main idea, it may not actually be the “topic” sentence of the paragraph.  We are also modeling how to differentiate the more  important details to include in “notes.” We are excited today to introduce a region collage project that students will be completing as homework this week.  We have one parent who has volunteered to help us in the class with the salt dough maps.  Is there anyone else who can help? Thanks to those parents who volunteered to make the dough for our salt maps!

Science:
We will be continuing the first investigation which deals with finding out what rocks are made of and distinguishing between a rock versus a mineral. Students will usually have response questions to check their understanding of the material at various points in the investigations.  At the end of each investigation, there is an assessment called an I-Check that will cover all class experiments and the related reading assignments. Students are to keep all science information in their yellow folders.

Project Cornerstone: Notice It! Name It! Celebrate It! ABC Corner
This month your student will hear a book titled Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon in class as part of the ABC program. Please watch for a letter from your classroom parent volunteer(s) for more information about this lesson. The goals of this lesson for our students are to identify caring adults in their lives, develop their personal power and belief that they have control over their lives, and increase self-esteem. Here are some activities that you can do at home to help achieve these goals:
1. Boost Each Other Up: Celebrate each family member's special talents and abilities. Go around the dinner table and have each family member say one thing they like about each of the other members.
2. Wall of Fame - create a special place in your house to display items that family members are proud of. Assign a space for each family member. Post items in this space that they are proud of (special drawings, an assignment they worked hard on, photos, etc.). Make sure there is a space for mom and dad, too!
3. Have your student "expert" explain the concept of "mud thoughts and clear thoughts" to the family. Have the family practice changing "mud thoughts into clear thoughts."
4. Encourage adults at home to have frequent conversations about the caring adults in the lives of youth. Identify who they are at school, in the neighborhood, in the family. Who are the caring adults for the adults?

*Note: Your e-mail Weekly Reminder version includes a copy of the parent letter that our classroom volunteer has to accompany the upcoming lesson.

CA Trivia:

What three crops beginning with “A” are grown almost exclusively in CA?

Students- when you find the answer to this question, please send an e-mail response to your teacher.  We’ll be waiting for you!

Our First Reminder- Sept. 4-7

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

September 4th-7th, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
• September 12th-20th - Parent Teacher Conferences, 12:30 dismissal
• Friday, September 21- Learning Day (No School)

A Back to School Night Highlight:

                                    Parent/Student Expectations:

    For the success of the child, there needs to be cooperation and communication between parents and students. Your child will have many opportunities to develop strategies to support their learning. We need you to monitor your child’s success with these new strategies.

1. Student Responsibilities-
1. monitor their learning, ask questions if they don’t understand
2. homework recorded and completed by assigned day
3. a time for students to gain independence and responsibility
4. work must be complete in order to participate in class
5. homework club
2. Parent Support-
1. time management- extra support especially at the beginning of the year
1. create a schedule/routine at home
2. quiet workspace
3. create a cut-off time- do not spend entire night doing homework
4. email teacher if unique situation arises
2. check to see if homework is completed
3. come to school on time
4. reasonable bedtime, good nutrition, & exercise
5. Common Sense Media- monitor appropriate computer usage outside the classroom
3. Parent/Teacher Communication Expectation-
1. You need to stay informed!
1. Read Weekly Reminders WITH your child to stay on top of classroom & school events, our main source of communication home

Conferences:
Thank you to all of our families who have promptly returned their conference forms and shared information about their children with their teachers.  Your input is very valuable to us as we prepare for our meetings with you beginning next Wednesday.  If you have yet to return your conference form, please do so as soon as possible.  We’d like to remind all families to arrive promptly for their conference- most teachers will have as many as six conferences in a row on the scheduled dates!  Also, students MUST attend the conference with their parents; no conferences will be conducted without the student in attendance.  

Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts:
We’ve begun our small group center activities, and students have had the opportunity to practice, review, and learn new skills in poetry writing, vocabulary, comprehension of non-fiction materials, and grammar.  Students have had a chance to decorate and design bookmarks and write in their journals, design compass roses, and sketch and label a map of California. Expository Writing is the first genre we’ll be covering during our Writer’s Workshop time. We are now beginning our study of  Island of Blue Dolphins!  Please do your best to have the Core Literature books as soon as possible.

Math
4th grade: This week we are wrapping up two weeks of study of our first unit in math, “Numbers Through the Millions.”  This past Friday, students rotated through the three fourth grade math classrooms for a game day to practice their skills identifying Place Value and Ordering Numbers (least to greatest, greatest to least).  We conclude Chapter 2 this week with Rounding Numbers and a unit review before our test at the end of the week.

5th grade:  Students have looked at patterns from famous mathematicians like Gauss and Fibonacci and will apply that understanding to place value, exponents, and expanded notation in the coming week. A small quiz will be given at the end of this pattern unit in preparation to work with more patterns and functions as we move into algebra.

Social Studies:
Geography for the year has started!  Students have been learning and reviewing map skills. They’ve explored their own maps, designed compass roses, and reviewed latitude and longitude and absolute location terminology. Our next venture is more specific when we will be learning about the four regions of California and designing our own salt maps of the state.

Science:
After beginning our year with an involving series of activities to introduce the Scientific Method, we now turn our attention to our Solid Earth unit.  We take on the role of geologists this trimester, and we practice the field and lab work that is carried on regularly by these scientists.  Investigation 1, Mock Rocks has three parts: observing the exterior properties of a rock, taking a rock apart to reveal its composition, and observing crystals that may or may not be present in a rock sample.  Cooperation, sharing of ideas, and careful use of materials is emphasized.  Stay tuned for more information from your student!

CA Trivia:

Where is the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere?

Students- when you find the answer to this question, please send an e-mail response to your teacher.  We’ll be waiting for you!